what most sci-fi movies always miss is the effect of special relativity to the stars. assuming there’s a scene in a spaceship, looking out towards the stars and the spaceship is moving at the speed near to the speed of light, special relativity or length contraction will make the stars look closer together. if the spaceship moves fast enough, then the stars should look like one giant ball of bright mass.
— prof simon brown, phys113 (2009)
